German Darknet Drug Vendor Arrested After Special Forces Raid
According to a press release from the Rhein-Erft-Kreis district police in Germany, a lengthy investigation has led to the arrest of an alleged darknet drug vendor and his suspected accomplices. The main target of the investigation was a 43-year-old man from the city of Bedburg, who had been actively selling controlled substances since January 2016 until his arrest at the end of October 2017.
Investigators gathered evidence that the main suspect was selling a wide range of drugs on two separate dark markets. Between January 2016 and late October 2017, the 43-year-old man reportedly earned around $210,000 in Bitcoin. His suspected accomplices include a 40-year-old man from Germany and a 32-year-old from Moldova. They assisted the main suspect in building a distribution network and managing the shops on the darknet marketplaces.
During a raid conducted by the Spezialeinsatzkräfte (Special Forces) on October 23, 2017, police searched the suspect’s apartment. The raid uncovered a significant quantity of controlled substances, large amounts of cash, gold, and a physical Bitcoin wallet.
After a final tally of the seized evidence, German law enforcement brought the 43-year-old man before a magistrate to obtain an arrest warrant. The magistrate, after presumably reviewing the evidence collected from the vendor’s apartment, signed the arrest warrant.
Law Enforcement Seizures:
- 5,800 ecstasy tablets
- 4 kilograms of MDMA
- 4.6 kilograms of marijuana
- 4.8 kilograms of hashish
- 130 grams of cocaine
- 2.4 kilograms of amphetamine
- Raw materials sufficient to produce 100–105 kg of finished amphetamine
- Precursors, laboratory equipment, and chemicals used for synthesizing amphetamine
- Cash – approximately $11,000
- Bitcoin – approximately $116,000
Note: If the vendor did not store his Bitcoin offline or in a specialized hardware wallet, German law enforcement could have found an unencrypted computer or smartphone with access to the cryptocurrency wallet. If he stored any other information on the device, it could potentially incriminate both buyers and sellers. However, there is currently no evidence to support this theory.